TENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X 447 



BEEF VS. MILK. 



By S. W. Woods, Adair. 



(Before the Adair County Farmers Institute.) 



As I have been asked to write on the subject of "Beef vs. Milk," I will 

 try to do so from different standpoints. I propose to back my assertions 

 by facts and figures. I claim there is more profit in making beef than 

 there is in milking.. We all know that ever since this country has been 

 settled, the making of beef has predominated to a greater extent than 

 milking. We all know there has been money made at feeding cattle 

 when it is done judiciously. True, there have been some failures, I'll ad- 

 mit, but you can trace it all to borrowed capital exclusively. We all 

 know the larger the farm the larger the feeder. Now, gentlemen, I don't 

 want any of you to think that I am casting any reflections on the small 

 farmer, or renter, for if ever there was a hard-working man, it is the 

 renter, for I was one myself and I suppose I would have been one yet 

 had I not accumulated nerve enough to buy some cattle and commenced 

 to feed and make beef. I have milked ever since I was eight years old 

 and I know whereof I speak, that taking it the year round there is not 

 a more disagreeable chore on the farm than milking. 



You will all have to admit that it is only within the last ten or twelve 

 years that there has been any money made at milking on the common 

 farm, and the farm separator has brought this al^out. I claim that a 

 man to start in with good well bred stock and will let his calves do the 

 milking, and before the calves are weaned they should be fed some corn 

 and oats and never let them lose their calf fat, and at the age of from 

 twelve to sixteen months should be ready for market and you all know 

 that what is called baby beef commands the highest price on the market 

 and with good care and judicious feeding they should average from 1,000 

 to 1,100 pounds and at the present price, or the average price for the last 

 five years for that class of beef, putting it at a very conservative price, 

 would be six cents per pound, which would bring from $60 to $70 per 

 head. (Now the average two-year old bullock seen on our markets today, 

 sent from the dairy districts, is an inferior specimen, and is worth about 

 $40.00, when the calf that is reared by the cow and fed half the grain 

 that that calf is fed and at the same age will bring an even $100.00). 

 I would like you to show me a herd of milk cows around here that will 

 produce half that amount, for a cow has got to produce 150 lbs. of butter 

 to pay for her care and keeping for one year. Did you ever stop to figure 

 the actual cost of milking, separating and delivering your cream to the 

 factory. If you had to hire the milking done, buy your separator, cans, 

 buckets, etc., and have an extra team to haul your cream, or else stop a 

 team from the farm, and you farmers know what that means, for the 

 average farmer has to haul his cream from three to five miles to the 

 creamery, which takes half a day three or four times a week; (will give 

 you the figures later). On the other hand, a man can attend to his 

 thirty cows and calves in not to exceed 20 minutes each morning and 

 evening and after the calves are weaned, if he has his self-feeder, he can 

 raise the slides and feed them in ten minutes. But right here let me 



